§ Mr. PicklesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make a statement on the availability of single sex clinics for the treatment of male breast cancer in each region of the health service; [146811]
(2) what guidance exists for the treatment of male breast cancer in mixed sex clinics. [146810]
§ Yvette CooperWe are committed to improving breast cancer services for both men and women. Male breast cancer is a rare disease with only approximately 200 cases diagnosed every year in the United Kingdom.
Due to the low number of cases of male breast cancer, it is not feasible to have separate clinics for men and women. However, there must be sensitivity to the needs of every patient and factors that could cause embarrassment need to be addressed at a local level.
The NHS Plan set out the intention to make available authoritative guidance on all aspects of NHS cancer care. The "Improving Outcomes in Breast Cancer" guidance was first published in 1996 (available in the Library) and an update will be available from March 2001. The guidance recommended that diagnosis of primary disease should normally be carried out using "triple assessment" for each new patient at a single visit. This increases the accuracy of diagnosis and decreases anxiety resulting from any delay.
§ Mr. PicklesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make a statement on the number of reported cases of male breast cancer in each of the last five years, broken down by regional health authority; [146814]
(2) if he will make a statement on the number of reported cases of male breast cancer in each of the last 10 years; [146815]
(3) which health authority had the highest number of reported cases of male breast cancer over the last five years; and by how much this varied from the average authority. [146813]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonI have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Eric Pickles, dated 26 January 2001:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent questions on male breast cancer (146813, 146814, 146815).The last 10 years for which cancer registration data are available are 1985–1994. The numbers of reported cases of male breast cancer (International Classification of Diseases ninth revision (ICD9) code 175) for these years at the national and regional health authority levels can be found in the publication "Cancer statistics: registrations", Series MB1 numbers 18–27. These are available in the House of Commons library.It is not possible to make valid comparisons of the incidence of male breast cancer among health authorities because there are on average only 2 cases per health authority per year.